Fired Employee Pleads Guilty To Bomb Hoax

HAMPTON — A man who placed a primitive explosive device inside a restaurant where he'd been fired days before pleaded guilty Friday to one felony charge and received a suspended sentence.

Stephen S. Gibson, 22, pleaded guilty to manufacturing an explosive device used as a hoax. He left the device inside Carvers Steakhouse, where its discovery prompted evacuation July 7.

The device was a metal box containing 492 firecrackers along with such odds and ends as batteries, paper clips, balloons, a bolt, a nut and a small red light with a siren. Using other explosives, authorities destroyed the device outside the restaurant. No one was hurt.

Gibson told authorities he put the bomb there as a joke.

Investigators were unable to determine whether the device could have actually detonated on its own, said assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Colleen Killilea.

Even if it had, Killilea said, the explosive force would not have been great.

As part of a plea agreement, Gibson was sentenced to five years in prison, all suspended. Circuit Judge Nelson T. Overton also ordered Gibson to receive mental health counseling and to stay away from Carvers and its employees.